18 Comments

I’m generally with you, Jamie, on the cosmology/epistemology, but methinks you a bit disregulated over the election and reading too much into its abductive conclusions. What if the election was no change really and there are forces unseen and possibly unknowable with our cognitive/linguistic apparatus that are antifragile to the chaos bomb you perceive. What if what looks like chaos is really just the extropic chasm between Level 1 and Level 2 on the spiral? There’s no way to know at this point, but all will be resolved soon enough. And if so, then indeed it was inevitable/inexorable in its coming. It’s an incredible time to be alive.

Expand full comment
author

you say abductive, I say potato. Your fuzzy appeal to unseen and unknowable forces suggests that what's plainly observable and falsifiable doesn't fit the story you'd like to be in? Not saying there aren't unforeseen plot twists ahead. Am saying that from the limited visibility of where we are now, a bunch of people made an electoral choice that required backbends, contortions and distortions to justify. We're more or less on the "let's break shit and see what happens" timeline. But if you're into wheels within wheels apophenia, here's a really good one about what's REALLY going on https://cjhopkins.substack.com/p/a-tale-of-two-psyops

Expand full comment
2dEdited

Thank you for the CJ Hopkins reference. A controversial figure for sure. However, I do appreciate the quote from the article ^

There is no “America” to make great again. “America” is a simulation. It is a map of a territory that does not exist. It is a dream within a dream in a film that no one can see because everyone is watching. It is a brand name for an imaginary product.

Could have been written by Jean Baudrillard. We are a captive audience. And we, Americans, behave like naive little children.

As Jean Baudrillard says, “ If you are prepared to accept the consequences of your dreams then you must still regard America today with the same naive enthusiasm as the generations that discovered the New World.”

It’s an incredible time to be alive for those who believe “It’s a wonderful life”. It’s also an incredible time to contemplate death or one’s being unto death which might requires grieving for an America that never was? Or for a planet we’re so eager to destroy through acts of hatred and violence and destruction of the planet. What does the continual destruction of the environment (something Trump will certainly make worse) along with the appointments Trump has made can make anyone feel great about our future?

“The only certainty is that we have lost the thread of our own shroud on the scales of death. We now live in an extraordinary period of waiting and suspension, symbolized by nuclear power. As objective hostages to a terrifying god, we remain unsure about the event or accident that will ultimately seal our fate, and who will be responsible for it.”

https://baudrillard-scijournal.com/baudrillard-and-the-forgetting-of-death-as-a-challenge/

Let the good times roll.

Expand full comment

Grateful for the provocation, holding this inquiry/challenge with curiosity. Contemplating the image of Kali.

Expand full comment

Or maybe the collective has an unconscious addiction to drama and chaos. It's the fuel source they've grown accustomed to. Peace, creativity and harmony actually require more introspection and work to get to the good stuff, it's a slower path, not always instant gratification. Drama and chaos have been inadvertently woven into the collective conscious via stories of "one true hero kicking many collective butts with no real repercussions" so often replayed, ad nauseam, in films and series. Real drama and chaos often disrupts brain function and physiology, which we don't ever see played out in said storylines. As I see it, we're in for another reversed step evolution over the next 4 years, or at least a long drawn out pause. I just wonder why we still seem to have to learn from chaos/drama when our intelligence via our imaginations lets us play out all possible outcomes. Co-operation is always the better choice. But then, as a musician and in general creative, harmony and cooperation are essential components.

I appreciate your insights Jamie. Always healthy food for thought. Keep 'em coming. Peace.

Expand full comment
2dEdited

Unconscious addiction to drama and chaos. Yes. Because FLIGHT response or being distracted or dissociated is preferable to feeling PAIN, SORROW and GRIEF or coming to terms with our death. That was the whole point of My Dinner with Andre, right?

I’m planning to read Francis Weller’s book, “The Wild Edge of Sorrow: The Sacred Work of Grief” He recently spoke at Thomas Hubl conference on climate change and intergenerational trauma.

“Peace, creativity and harmony actually require more introspection and work to get to the good stuff, it's a slower path, not always instant gratification.”

Yes. Much more difficult. I struggle with this on a daily basis.

Creativity can feel difficult to tap into when you feel shut down or disconnected. We don’t encourage creativity. Our society encourages conformity. I admire musicians as they generally are attuned to flow and improvisation if they’ve studied a while… Flow states is something to be cultivated in everyone. I’m working on it!

We need music, dance and art. We need people together dancing singing and grieving what most people have kept buried — particularly men in our culture.

Being a bad ass warrior has its time and place. “One true hero kicking many collective butts with no real repercussions" — that’s every Netflix and Amazon offering. Usually wife or daughter has been kidnapped or killed and the guy needs to kick as to avenge the injustice! I think that script could be AI generated at this point.

Rethinking our own mythologies and archetypes requires work and self reflection. But, it’s also how we perceive each other which is related to gender politics — how we see ourselves as men and women. We don’t get from here to there by staying here.

https://www.francisweller.net/the-wild-edge-of-sorrow-the-sacred-work-of-grief.html

Expand full comment

Your words make me think of the Trickster.

Expand full comment

Gary Snyder, a true costonian of this marble of madness

Expand full comment

Nature is cyclical, not progressive or linear.

Expand full comment
author

he says with utter certainty...

Expand full comment

I think there is a bigger play afoot as well. One that came to mind is my old buddy Hegel and dialectics, a concept I keep seeking to understand, as the more I learn the less I know. In this case the thesis, antithesis, synthesis pendulum. The weird thing question is where all this is currently landing?, where is the synthesis? Is it the classic middle? kind of like the moral majority of old? or is it, as the outcome of this election suggests, what was once the extreme now the "mega majority"?, and then, with this the new status quo, where does it all go from here? My guess it will be one of those "Toto, I don't think we are in Kansas anymore"... twilight zones.

Expand full comment

Maybe the point is that we're not supposed to know any of these things. Maybe we're just here to experience things, to try stuff out and then decide if we like them or not. I'm not saying I like that idea in the sense of the larger world, but I like it for my personal life. Say I just ran out of gas because I wasn't paying attention to the gas guage (I don't have an EV). Maybe I'm not an idiot, I just chose the experience of running out gas to see what would happen. It's easy to think we chose something when we like the results. More challenging to do so when we don't - just a concept I've been playing with lately.

Expand full comment

Something about this article is disturbing, dissapointing and equally unconvincing.

Expand full comment

Well done Jamie, good read. Bit like Titanic, captain and crew were not necessarily the most intelligent men on that ship, but it was their job. We have a situation throughout the world now, where we want the most intelligent people on each ship, holding rein. When we have a system of status quo, yes men, you scratch my back, I yours, lobbying. Mediocrity, if truth be told. When we listen to any politician, we feel the explanation of a PG13 movie. Higher minds within civilian life among us, must sense that patients have taken over..........though its really simply greed. I explained it in my writing like the tv series The Offer - money people vs creative. Money are everywhere, creative/true problem solvers, no where to be seen. This needs rebalancing, but holistically, not just business. Keep an eye on Ireland, end of this month. The equivalent of both Dems and Repubs together, shared rulership and prime ministership, these past 5 years. There's a chance both parties could be ousted after 100 years of government between them. Germany also had a vote of no confidence recently. They have their elections in January. There's better minds than both of ours, ready to consider - this stoppage of the wheel, this game of monopoly, maybe even incentive redirected in some way from monetary gain. But it be heretical, taboo thinking, rocks and fake beards are at hand....................the more of us that "will" these thoughtforms into existence, the more opportunity they'll have to manifest. Better that anyway, than hiding under the bed watching Netflix, having turkey sandwiches for thanks and ordering black mirror Friday discounts. Keep shining Jamie man, your beacon be a good one.

Expand full comment

Fucking Brilliant Jamie! This post landed me at wondering what the hell is creativity and generative organic intelligence? Like, what are scientists like Einstein drawing from to ‘discover’ new areas of mathematics that are part of the ‘fabric’? How might we tap into this, innovate our way towards more serenity as we hurtle towards entropy?! Hmmmmm……

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DCpZ1cmPTjf/?igsh=NjZiM2M3MzIxNA==

Expand full comment

Brilliant Jamie! Thank you for helping to come to grips with the Timeline we find oursleves in. So well put!

Expand full comment

Jeez. Maybe 4 years of contemplating all you bring up will open some doors and maybe some minds. Thanks

Expand full comment